


In Loving Memory

by dracoMidnight



Series: Temerairestuck [6]
Category: Homestuck, Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Animal Death, Body Horror, Death, Multi, Original Character Death(s), Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-07-11 21:10:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7070386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dracoMidnight/pseuds/dracoMidnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This fic is for one of my Leopard Geckos who had died today... Little Luna had been my favorite one... I had adopted her in February 7, 2015... and in the past few weeks she had gotten mbd (metabolic bone disease). I didn't notice that she had started to get this disease until yesterday but I had already noticed that she wasn't like her old self... I had gotten the liquid calcium for her and my mom had given her the dose but she ended up giving her more than my suggested 2-3 drops.... but I don't know if that is what killed her... but this fic is for her. This fic is for my little Luna who had died today at a younger age than she should've died at...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Weird Morph of Breeds

**Author's Note:**

> November 14, 1914 is the date for this hatchling, I don't know Luna's actual hatching date except for that it was in November of 2014.

Dave had been nearby watching the procedure with his three brothers. They didn’t have anyone on hand with them at the time when they had been sent to go and get the egg from the breeders, an Angelwing and Greywing mix, from an unlikely pairing. However the egg hadn’t been found till it was nearing its hatching time and in a fit of desperation Dirk had decided to take over and be the dragon’s captain, if it took him. They had stayed by the breeding grounds but well away from the other dragons when it had started to hatch. Dirk had been nearby to carefully watch and then to also harness the hatchling when it comes out. There was a screech from inside as the little hatchling started to grow annoyed with its entrapment before it burst from the shell, messily. The little hatchling arched its back to hiss its displeasure at the egg shells on the ground and covering its body, giving them all enough time to look the hatchling over.

It was small, smaller than an Angelwing and about the size of most Greywing hatchlings. But instead it was a pale lavender color with white splotches over its back and a pure white underbelly. The little hatchling also had a crown of lavender over the head with little black spots dotting over it and along the body and legs. The wings were much the same, pale lavender near the base that started to fade out to white with little black speckles and broken stripes. The little hatchling didn’t notice them until Dirk stepped forward with a tiny cough to alert the dragonet. The hatchling looked over at him with an arched back and teeth bared in a screech before noticing the meat in Dirk’s grasp. The little hatchling sat down on its haunches and stared at him curiously.

“Hey, little one… do you want it? It’s alright I won’t hurt you. I just want to put this on you. You can sniff it if you’d like. See? It isn’t gonna harm you.” Dirk carefully says as he holds out the harness to the hatchling so it can smell it before also holding out the meat.

The dragonet sniffed the harness some more before shrugging and eating the meat ravenously, once finished the little hatchling looked up at Dirk and blinked a couple of times with startling clear silvery ice grey eyes and then in a clear bell like voice it said. “I don’t mind if you put that on me… only if you promise that there is more food.”

Dirk blinks a little before sighing and nodding his head. “Yes, of course. We have a lot more food for you, you will have enough to eat, I promise.”

The little hatchling that they all identified as female stood straight for Dirk and the harness. Once it was put on she turned her head around and sniffed at it with curiosity before nodding her head. “It’ll do. Now, where is that food I was promised?”

Dirk chuckles before looking over at D who is grinning and nods to Dirk as he turns around and gives Dirk the buckets of freshly butchered meat, rather hastily done since the hatchling had started to hatch in the middle of the night. He set the bucket in front of the hatchling so she could tuck right on in and she did so with a furious hunger. Dirk smiled before suddenly a name came to him, “Luna… I’ll call you Luna.”

The hatchling looked up at him and tilted her head as she gnawed on some of the meat from the cow. “I like that name… its lovely sounding.” She murmurs before going back to eating but much slower than before as she rolls the idea of the name around in her head. The others all sighed at the name and looked at Dirk who merely shrugged.

“It’s the middle of the night… and her scales look a lot like the moon when light reflects on them.” Dirk explains himself and the others merely shrugged while Dirk stayed close to his new dragon.


	2. In Loving Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Loving Memory  
> Luna  
> November 2014 (February 7, 2015) - June 2, 2016

It had been a wonderful sunny day, but Dirk wasn’t paying attention to the warm weather, perfect for flying. He was frowning, watching his dragon while she ate. She had recently started losing weight which was strange since she was at a perfect weight a few weeks ago. She had recently had eggs though so it may have been because of that. But after her recent laying of twin eggs they checked her over again and she was still near a healthy weight. Though now however she had lost a lot of the weight she once had, her skin clinging to her bones and making her look gaunt and sickly, making her once creamy yellow scales look almost pale and faded. Her colors had changed as she had grown older making the lavender coloration fade while the creamy yellow took over her back and a little bit of her legs and wings and the spots had grown bigger along with the broken lines except a bit more than before.

Now however she looked faded and weak, her joints ached when asked of how she was feeling and she was indeed walking a little bit funny. But that wasn’t as much of a problem as it could’ve been that she laid down wrong. But now… Dirk was watching her eat and noticed another problem, she wasn’t eating right. Whenever she tried to eat her mouth wouldn’t chew or pull on the meat as much as it should to be able to eat. Her tongue constantly stuck itself out of her mouth to flatten upon her lower lip and it was clear that she was getting frustrated that she couldn’t eat. Worried, Dirk quickly went over to her and looked at her mouth to where he noticed that a slight under bite had started to form whereas she never had that problem before. He bit his lip in worry before he called to one of his runners and asked them to cut up her meat while he went and got his brothers and Jade, a dragon medic.

They came back to look over Luna as she was now finally able to eat with a ravenous hunger despite her trouble chewing and the fact that it looked like she was only swallowing her food and not chewing. Jade looked Luna over before frowning and when she came back she shook her head to Dirk.

“I’m sorry… I don’t know what happened or how it happened… but it looks like Luna’s bone structure is actually starting to deteriorate… we could try and give her some supplements but I don’t know if these actually work since we’ve never had a case like this before.” Jade carefully states to Dirk who is looking more and more pale, “I’m sorry…” She murmurs again before going and getting the medicine for Luna.  
Dirk sat down heavily where he stood with his head in his hands as his mind worked over what had been told him franticly. How? How? Is all that runs through it though and he rocks a little bit as he shook his head. “Damnit… How the fuck… she was perfectly fine!” His voice cracks a little and Luna whips her head around in worry though even that looked slow and painful for her in his mind.

She made her way over to Dirk and quietly burbles at him in her own worry. “Dirk… are you ok…?” She murmurs, nuzzling his head as he turns and rests his head against her chest and listening to her labored breathing… was it always that harsh sounding…?

“I-I’m fine… how are you though, love…? Are you ok…?” He asks her while she merely hums softly and shrugs.

“I could be better… but you are distressed… what’s wrong…?” She nuzzles his head again and he shakes it.

Jade comes over soon with the supplement and tells Luna to eat it. She sniffs at it before scrunching her nose up in disgust and reeled her head back. “Please, Luna, eat it. It’ll help you…” Jade says though she knows that she doesn’t know whether or not it will actually help Luna.

Luna grimaces but does as asked and leans her head down to carefully drink the mixture completely. Once done she gags a little and rears her head back in disgust though she doesn’t throw up, even though it looks like she wants to.

“Are you ok!?” Dirk says in alarm as he stands up to look at her with a worried expression she nods her head as she swallows back the bile before she suddenly felt a bit tired.

“Yeah, I’m fine… I… I just want to sleep right now… I’m sorry Dirk that we can’t go on our daily ride.” She murmurs as she settles down in her clearing.

Dirk shook his head and gently stroked her snout. “No, no, love. It’s fine. Rest and take your time… I’ll be back alright. Just sleep.”

She murmured agreement before the large eyelids slid close over her silvery eyes. Dirk went with his brothers and Jade before rounding on her. “What was that that you fed Luna?”  
“Dirk!” Dave said in surprise and a little bit harshly at the way he rounded on her.

Jade merely flinched and fidgeted with her apron. “It was a supplement… calcium and magnesium… both help with bone growth… though… like I told you we don’t know how it’ll work nor do we know how much one needs since no dragon has ever gotten something like this before.”

Dirk doesn’t say anything as he stares at Jade in mounting horror. D goes over to him and lightly rests a hand on his shoulder. “Hey… it’ll be fine. Luna’s a strong dragon. She’ll make it.”

Dirk merely shook his head and quickly went to his room to sleep, suddenly finding that he has a lack of appetite. He doesn’t come out of his room till around midday and when he remembers about Luna’s predicament he quickly leaps out of the bed and rushes down to go to her clearing with his undergarments as he only took his coat off. He rushed to the clearing before stopping dead in his tracks at the sight before him and he screams in agony at the sight of Luna crumpled up by the river that flowed through her clearing. Her legs looked twisted underneath her and her jaw looked as though it were melting down like clay while her scales looked like cloth and hung over her skeleton and it looked especially weird around her haunches. He quickly ran over to her and collapsed beside her head, her eyes were closed, and tears came streaming out of his eyes as he sobbed over Luna’s head. At hearing the scream a good portion of the people in the corps came running out and to the clearing only to halt dead in their tracks at seeing the dead dragon. Dave was one of them and at seeing Luna crumpled up dead with her tail twisted awkwardly he quickly flash stepped over to Dirk to wrap him up in a hug. Someone, they don’t know who, ran to go and get the rest of the Striders along with the Lalondes. They all came running hurriedly over, Rose stopped with a gasp as tears pricked her eyes at the sight. She had been a great friend to Luna and often wrote stories with the loving dragon that had grown rather protective over all of them. Roxy had stopped to instead wrap her arms around Rose who collapsed where she was sobbing and buried her head into Roxy’s shoulder as Roxy also started crying at seeing her older sister and brother crying.

D and Bro quickly went over to Dirk while Dave turned his head up to look at them, his shades were gone leaving only puffy eyes and red eyes full of tears staring back up at them. Bro leans down to them and wraps them up in a hug as D does the same before he looks over at Luna and gives her a once over. He shakes his head before leaning down beside Dirk again.

“Dirk, hey, come on… it’s ok… She didn’t die in pain, that’s for certain… I know, it is hard losing a friend… Come on…” D murmurs to him just as Dirk looks up at him, hiccupping and sniffing, his own eyes a teary and red looking which made D’s heart break.

“I should’ve been here… I should’ve woken my ass up and gone down to see her… and because of me… I wasn’t here to see her… I didn’t see her die… I wasn’t there!” He screamed near the end and D hugged him tightly shooshing him frantically.

“Shhhh, Dirk, Dirk, listen to me. It is not your fault. It isn’t your fault. You didn’t know. None of us knew. We aren’t morning people, you know that. I know it’s tough… But it isn’t your fault.” D tells him as he rocks his younger brother with gentle shooshes.

Dirk however soon grows stormy between his sniffing as he thinks back on it. “It’s Jade’s fault. She was the one that gave Luna that stupid fucking thing!” He yells between his sobs while D shook his head.  
“Dirk. No. It isn’t Jade’s fault. She didn’t know. Don’t blame her for this. She didn’t know Dirk. She was just doing her job and thought of the best thing to use for what she was given with… nothing could’ve told her that what she may have given could’ve killed her. It isn’t either of your guys’ faults.” D said before Dirk just broke down into sobs again but nodded his head. “Come on… Let’s give her a proper burial…” D murmurs as he stands up with Dirk while Dave and Bro stood up as well.

All six of them stood vigil while Bro’s and D’s dragons set to digging up the grave between clusters of maple trees in a nice shady area. Luna’s body was wrapped up in a cloth so that they can avoid seeing the broken state of her body while they dug. Once the grave had been assembled the two dragons carefully lifted up Luna’s body and lowered her into the grave before grabbing the bags of fragrant rose petals that Dirk had picked for her and started to cover the body with them before burying the hole back up. They flattened the ground again before D’s dragon flew off and came back with a large boulder to set at the top of the grave while Bro’s started to carve into it.

In Loving Memory

Luna

November 14, 1914 – June 2, 1916

The dragons started to scatter rocks around the burial site before landing behind their captains with bowed heads. Dirk went up to the grave, his eyes still puffy from tears, and set down a bouquet of flowers for his dragon. He sniffed a little before standing back up and turned around going back over to his siblings while Rose also laid down her own flowers, the rest had laid down a flower each before going over to Rose and Dirk and carefully led the two away.

 

When Dave’s dragon had started hatching earlier than expected like Dirk’s they all quickly went over to it. Dirk merely watched and smiled faintly at how the little hatchling acted and sighed softly as his smile fell. However when the days passed on and Dave could finally choose people for his crew, he frowned when he heard him ask for Jade as the dragon medic of the crew.

“Jade? Why do you want Jade? She’s the one who had given Luna that medicine. What if Karkat gets something and she gives him something that can kill him?” Dirk says a bit stonily before flinching at the cold look Dave gives him.

“Dirk. What happened that day was not Jade’s fault. It was none of your guys’ faults. When will you realize that? She didn’t know. Now let it go… I know it hurts. I know it still hurts you at her death. You don’t think I don’t see you go to her grave near constantly? But blaming Jade for something she had no idea about… Come on Dirk. She feels just as bad as you do. But it isn’t her fault. And it isn’t your fault.” Dave sets down the quill as he turns and stands up to face his twin brother. “Come here, dork…” He holds his arms out and Dirk leans into them before burying his face into his shoulder as he hugs Dave back tightly. He didn’t realize he was crying.

“It’s going to be ok…” Dave murmurs, Dirk nods his head before repeating him in a mumble.

"It is going to be ok..."


End file.
